According to the National Institutes of Health, around 43% of children referred for learning difficulties have Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). The research states that 70% of people with dyslexia also have an underlying auditory processing disorder. Surprisingly, 25% of all children tested for learning disabilities were found to have both APD and dyslexia. This research sheds light on the connection between these two conditions, emphasizing the importance of understanding and addressing auditory processing issues in individuals with dyslexia.
Auditory Processing Disorder is an abnormality in the processing of sound in the central auditory nervous system. This causes a breakdown in the brain’s ability to accurately and efficiently process sounds and language. This can make it hard to distinguish small sound differences within words, remember what was heard, and keep up with ongoing speech, especially when there is background noise or when more than one person is talking. Children with APD also tend to say “what?’ or “huh” frequently even when they seem to be paying attention. Asking for repetition of what was heard does not have anything to do with reading or spelling but it is a big red flag that the child is having difficulty processing spoken language.
Research using brain imaging studies has documented impairments in the process of encoding sounds, such as pitch and timing differences in speech sounds, which contribute to the poor phonological skills seen in children with reading difficulties.
Auditory temporal processing, the skill to perceive the fast-paced changes in speech sounds, is often impaired in children with auditory processing disorder, dyslexia, and language delays. This weakness in distinguishing subtle variations in speech sounds can significantly hinder reading ability and impede language development.
Struggling readers often have auditory neurons that don’t fire quickly enough to process speech sounds effectively. This leads to difficulties in hearing the initial part of a sound and interpreting the changing aspects of speech. As a result, the child’s ability to understand a sequence of sounds and discern subtle timing cues is impacted. In essence, if a child cannot hear the first milliseconds of a speech sound, many sounds will appear indistinguishable to them.
The child may struggle with distinguishing the rapid sounds in speech, such as identifying the differences between voiced and voiceless sounds in words like “cat” and “bat,” or subtle variations in the placement of sounds in words like “dig” and “big.” They may find it challenging to determine when one sound ends and another begins.
The Fast ForWord program is specifically designed to target and address neurological processing issues in the brain. By stimulating the brain to reorganize itself and create new neural connections, it helps improve overall cognitive functioning. This is achieved through the concept of neuroplasticity, where certain parts of the brain can change and adapt in response to sensory input and intensive training. In the Fast ForWord Foundations/Literacy program, the games utilize acoustically altered speech sounds, words, and sentences to enhance the recognition and processing of the rapidly changing phonetic elements found in natural speech.